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NASA watches as SpaceX gets set for first space shot

If all goes smoothly – and it hasn’t so far -- Space Exploration Technologies or SpaceX will this month send its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon space capsule into low earth orbit on the first public resupply mission to the International Space Station. The Dragon will stay about 18 days and deliver a little over 1,000 pounds of cargo. A successful mission will go a long way toward bolstering the idea of non-NASA spacecraft ferry equipment and ultimately astronauts to the space lab. It won’t be an easy task by any means. “This is a really tough flight. What we’re asking them to do is amazing,” NASA’s William Gerstenmaier said. Here we take a look at the components of this historic event.

In a processing facility at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex-40 in Florida, the SpaceX Dragon capsule is rotated into a horizontal position for joining with the second stage of the company’s Falcon 9 rocket.

According to NASA, shortly after launch, Dragon will undergo a series of checkout procedures to test and prove its systems in advance of its docking with the station. It will approach from the Earth-facing side, then hover at a distance of 2.5 kilometers so that its sensors and flight systems can be examined to ensure that it is safe to proceed. The spacecraft also will demonstrate its capability to abort the rendezvous. Once Dragon is cleared for capture, Canadarm2 will perform a cosmic catch: it will grapple the capsule and install it on the space station.

The Falcon 1 rocket built by SpaceX sits on the launch pad awaiting liftoff at the U.S. Military's Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Test Site on Omelek Island, near Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean's Marshall Islands in November 2005.

The Freedom Star, a former space shuttle solid rocket booster recovery ship, is now a floating high tech camera and radar platform that will be stationed in the North Atlantic to track and capture images of the first commercial spacecraft carrying cargo to the International Space Station.